Sports News

Turning to sport, and the Czech Republic has finally announced their 18-man squad for the Olympic Games football tournament. Under an agreement between Czech and Moravian Football Association and Czech league representatives, no more than two players from any one team will travel to Australia with five Gambrinus league clubs--Sparta, Slavia, Sigma Olomouc, Brno and Ceske Budejovice --all making the maximum contribution.

Sparta had faced losing two of their brightest young players for the duration of the event. However, midfielder Tomas Rosicky, a member of the Czech Republic's Euro 2000, was surprisingly omitted from the Olympic squad, as was Jiri Jarosik, who has been left out due to injury.

The omission of Jarosik will come as little consolation for Sparta, though. The champions face losing the midfielder for up to three weeks after he suffered a broken jaw and nose during Sparta's 5-1 win over Budejovice at the weekend. Disappointment too for the Under-21 star Tomas Dosek. The two-player rule means that one of players most influential in the Czechs' qualification for Sydney must sit the tournament out. Trainer Karel Bruckner opted instead to take Dosek's brother Lukas Dosek and Adam Petrous.

Definitely on their way to the Olympics, though, will be Marek Heinz of SV Hamburg as well as the Napoli midfielder Marek Jankulovski.

Turning to the US Open and as expected, it was a very short tournament for Martin Damm. The Czech was unfortunate enough to be pulled out of the bag alongside the Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the first round and was duly swept aside by the number four seed, 7-6 7-5 6-4.

There were a few successes though. Petr Kralert overcame the Spaniard David Sanchez 7-6 7-6 6-2 and Jiri Novak is also into round 2 after a straight-sets win over another Spanish player, Alberto Martin.

In the women's bracket, Kveta Hrdlickova and Adriana Gersia are also both through to round two.